Is P-D-C-A outmoded?

I first heard of the PDCA cycle 25 years ago.

I have not heard of it for at least 6 years, until recently when a funny thing happened & any grandfather would tell you they suck eggs better than you...for one thing, any grandfather would tell you they have lost their wisdom teeth a long time ago, while yours are just starting to grow.

If anybody tells you the basis of the PDCA cycle is continuous improvement, i.e." improvement without interruption", then whatever you do now may have become outmoded if you have not changed recently.

Has the PDCA cycle itself changed or improved since 25 years ago?

Continuous improvement will create a "change fatigue"....you would become disillusioned, disenchanted & confused, you might even stop following the changes altogether.

I think there are three factors to perform a mission:-
1. PEOPLE
2. PROCESS
3. PRODUCT

If people are not motivated, will change or improvement occur?

Definitely, change requires people, process & product. If people are not a company's asset, then why PDCA? Why not CACES..Come Act Cheque Eat Sleep? If people are a company's asset, the company must ensure its appreciation , or else they will depreciate & eventually be writtten off as zero-value before the end of their life-cycles.

What Shewart & Deming meant should be continual improvement, i.e. a cycle of improvements with pauses to consolidate the changes. It is then subject to Checking or Study that there is actually an improvement BEFORE the next change or improvement activity be started again.
That's why ISO recognises this & corrected ISO9000 to ISO9004-2000 mentioning specifically "continual improvement".

Don't you think Do & Act are the same? Check your dictionary for their meanings....sometime its just for want of a term. I think ACT should really mean IMPROVE or CORRECT or RECTIFY when failing to achieve the desired results.

Why didn't Deming or Shewart improve PDCA if they are so good?
Does PDCA cycle have to be circular? You were taught so? Is it possible ,just think for a moment, for you to DO something without a Plan but with just a "thought" or"idea"? Have you ever done something sucessfully without a Plan? Think hard...hard....hard...now you are sleeping..you are in slumberland....sleep,sleep,sleep...zzzzzzzzzzzz. SNAP!
I sometime just do the improvement straightaway when I see something different on the spot.

PDCA works on the basis of the Japanese incremental continuous (small) changes. It is no good to make a sudden big change......but this is what the US advocates- a sudden big change to effect an impact on the overall improvement. REFORMASI ! What the Chinese ( PRC) always said ( I heard it a thousand time while in China) - "Kai Ge".

In PDCA, no people are mentioned, people are not a company's asset. It is assumed that people will use and make it happen. What Shewart & Deming did not know was that most people are not motivated or interested in improvement if there are no benefits to be reaped.

In ISO14000, the first three elements are actually the PLAN, followed by the DO until the "monitoring" element when the CHECK starts & ends at ACT at the last element (Mgmt Review). One cannot achieve the ISO14000 status if all elements are not strictly adhered to but can one achieve the desired results without performing the the first three elements?

QCC circles? QCC circles work on the pillar of the PDCA cycle. If a company has active QCC activities 13 years ago, would the PDCA cycle be obsolete now?

Quo vadis? Pension.